A Jumble of Things

There hasn't been to much going on recently.  I haven't had too much to post or any time to post it.  Jimmie and I have both been working 40 hrs a week, and I almost went over time last week.  Waking up in the 4 o'clock am so many days a week can kinda make me..well, exhausted.  I wont be working quite as much once school starts, but will still be working a lot.  Next week for me, and beginning of September for Jimmie, we will be starting school and working.  Jimmie will be doing BYU Idaho online, and I'll be going back to BYU for my Senior year. (That seems so crazy. College has gone by so quickly).  So this post will be relatively long about random, somewhat pointless, happenings from over the course of the last month or so.

In my spare time, I've just been trying to do some home improvement/furnishing type projects as cheap as possible.  I'll show you some pictures of our recent home additions.  

Getting a Couch

Here are some pictures of our couch we got on Craig's List that so many of you heard our story of. (If you didn't...long story short: Found a super cheap couch on Craig's List that was only a few blocks away so we decided to push it across town on a dolly. After almost 2 hours, avoiding many obstacles and adding a bunch of extra blocks onto our journey we finally got the couch home!)  I forgot to put the pictures up a while back like I promised.  I wish I had a picture or video of our journey getting it home, but I don't.  It's not the prettiest to look at, but it is in fact, THE most comfortable couch, I've ever sat on and we are thrilled with it.  Compared to that dinky little futon that Nala was dominating, it's the best thing ever.  We thought about covering it..but it almost kinda works with the walls.  So for now, we think it's just fine. 

(The really awful clashing thing, is that make-shift door curtain.  Yikes! It's the only fabric I had though, so it'll do for now!)

These pictures were taken a while back, the decor around looks a little different now.

Cheap Canvas Photo (Tutorial)

One of the projects I really enjoyed and wanted to share is this big wall photo that I MADE for a grand total of $4.00.  Wait one more time... I made it for... four. dollars.  Okay so let's talk logistics, shall we? I went online to Walmart just to see how much a typical large poster print would be for this size..it was about  $20 just for the print.  Not paying for that! How did I make this for so cheap? Modified Pinterest posts :)  

(I apologize, I wish I had more step by step photos (or any), but realistically, it was just too simple and quick--I was done before I had a chance to take any!)

The print hangs above our couch now--I chose to make it an 18"x24".

Here's the basics of what you have to do...

Getting the Print: I used Staples, but most places that print would have this.  The key is you have to order an "Engineer Print".  These are cheap, very large prints, that are supposed to be used for blueprints.  It's not designed for photos, but let me tell you, this thing turned out great quality.  They can print, at least at Staples, up to 36"x90" (HUGE). My print was like $1.80.  I submitted the picture in their copy/print center online and picked it up the next day at the store.  (Note: Make sure you have the rights to print the picture because of copyright laws and all that because they will ask you for them if it looks professional).

The print will come on just regular paper, probably rolled up like a poster. And now that I think about it, I'm not sure if these prints are just black and white or not...I chose black and white obviously.

Backing your Picture: Since it's regular paper, it needs structure of some sort.  I'm sure you could just buy a poster frame at Walmart-but I wanted it more like a canvas.  The original blog post I read bought a giant styrofoam board and used spray glue to attach it.  If you can find a styrofoam board big enough, go for it.  Let me just tell you though, they don't have them at Walmart or Michaels.  I'd try Home Depot or Lowes, but I wasn't about to look in 4 different stores.  Instead, I opted for the foam presentation type boards at Michaels (Or Walmart).  Not as thick as styrofoam, but it's thick enough.  This ran about $2.00.  If you have the spray glue already, that's really all you'll need for this.  

Assembly: Easiest part ever.  Spray the board with spray glue, carefully place photo onto board to avoid air bubbles.  The board was not the exact size of the photo, so I just trimmed the white from the border of the picture and the extra foam board with an exacto knife.  The blog that I got the idea from taped wire on the back to hang the photo. I don't have wire, and this thing is really light.  So I braided some thread together to thicken it and hot glued it to the back in an arch so that it can easily hang on a tack or nail. That's that! It's so easy, it's ridiculous.

Here's a side view for you.  I didn't like that you could see the white of the foam board on the side so I decided to paint it black along with creating a border to kinda go better with the antique-y looking canvases it hangs next to. (See the smaller canvas photo transfer tutorial here)

This little display is above our couch now.  Pretty proud of the fact that I made all 3 of those. Yeeeah! (I know they're not hung equally...they've since been fixed :) )

And in case you were worried that the photo would not be good quality...it turned out just fine for me :) You can see every little detail of this picture. Here's a close up view.

Other Projects

I'm doing some high-contrast iconic art right now to eventually mat and have a collection.  I did the Ray Charles in High School and that made me want to do some more.  I decided to do an Elvis painting this last week.  I'm going to be doing some more soon--anyone have any suggestions?? Any iconic figure throughout history would work!

We also just got a ton of prints for super cheap! We hadn't ordered wedding photos so 9 months later, we finally got around to it.  We had a big open wall with nothing on it... so we found this frame set for $10 on amazon and a wall decal for about a dollar.   We were able to get all of these photos, about 150+ 4x6 prints for scrapbooking and several other larger prints, that we still need to hang, for so so cheap.  Thanks WinkFlash!

Nala gets Sick

Here's a picture of Nala being all lethargic and sick at the vet.  We had quite a bad scare with her.  When we adopted her, she was in the middle of her series of puppy shots vaccinating her from a deadly puppy disease called Parvo.  Well, it wasn't communicated to us that we needed to follow up and get the next shot within a certain time period, so when we went to the vet, they told us her initial shots were invalid now.  We started revaccinating against it because the vet described it as "if she gets it, she WILL die".  Well, that weekend she started to have diarrhea for a few days and then one day, I came home and she had thrown up.  So, I called the vet to see if it was something to worry about and they told me that since she hadn't been vaccinated for Parvo, that could easily be what it is because it's extremely contagious and she's showing the symptoms of this disease with 91% mortality rate.  Oh, I was an emotional mess.  Thankfully, we rushed her to the vet, the did a test on her and it came back negative.  They aren't entirely sure what's wrong with her now, but they think its just some kind of stomach virus.  She's still having some trouble gaining weight so she's on prescription dog food and just finished some antibiotics.  Though she still is really thin, she has SO much more energy now and is such a happy puppy again. We're thrilled! And thankfully, she will get her last parvo vaccination shot on Friday.  Phew!

 She's a happy little girl, still loves to cuddle, and is learning new tricks and commands every day :)

 A Trip to Salt Lake

Meredith came to Wyoming to visit her sister's family and new niece, but she had a few days to chill in Salt Lake before her flight left.  I haven't seen Mere in a long time. We have been meaning to go up to Salt Lake for a little while because we'd never been to the new City Creek mall and Geoff gave me an H&M gift card for my birthday.  Apparently you can't order H&M clothes online, and the closest one is in the new City Creek mall.  

We thought it'd be a great time to pick up mere and go hang out at the mall.  We got a bite to eat at the Cheesecake Factory and did some exploring.  City Creek is right across the street from temple square.

 Ha! There was also a man doing some free caricatures in the plaza and we thought it'd be fun.  They weren't the best we've seen, but we thought it was hilarious.  We've never had anything like that done and for only paying a tip, it was worth it.  Apparently I have a monster forehead and wear goggles.  Jimmie also has a great long head and a bald spot <3 love it.  

Wish I had more pictures, but I left my phone in the car.  

This mall...is HUGE.  To be honest, it wasn't my favorite mall.  Maybe just because it was really big and I had baked that morning...so I'd already been on my feet from 5-12.  Walking a gigantic mall is not the most ideal follow up event, but it was a lot of fun.

 Haha, sorry for this ridiculous picture. I was making fun of "selfie" pictures that people take of themselves.   Duck face and peace sign?  How typical.  Realistically, I just took this picture because this sweatshirt is what I got at H&M from Geoff.  Ignore the ridiculousness of this picture. Thanks Geoff!

This picture has no significance at all.  I just thought it was really funny that we unintentionally had an entirely Red and Yellow dinner... Taco Salsa chicken..corn...red grapes...red plate.  WIN!

Can't believe that school starts next Monday--a week from today! YIKES. This will be the first time I'm working with a job and having a full class load.  We'll see how that goes.